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UNION SPEECH; 



DELIVERED AT 



KANAWHA SALINES, VA. 




ON THE 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1856.- 



BY HENBY RUFFNER. 



PrBLISBED BY THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANQEMENTS AT THE REQUEST 
OF THE ADDIENCE. 



CINCINNATI : 

APPLEGATE & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 

No. 43 Main street, 

1856. 







tv 



El 2.S<, 





APPLEOA.TB & Co., Printers, 43 M^in stricict, Cincinnati. 



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ORATION. 



Fellow Citizens : 

To-day our nation is four score years of age. Some of her 
citizens are older. A few are yet living, who in their youth fought 
for our indep.'ndence. We are a young nation. Every considera- 
ble nation of Europe is more than ten times as old, counting from 
the time when the institutions of modern society arose after the dis- 
solution of the Roman Empire. The principal nations of Asia are 
of still greater antiquity. 

It is only iTpon tliis continent that civilized nations younger than 
ours, have sprung up. But, in one respect, even the Spanish 
American States are older than our United States. As colonies, 
they had an earlier beginning; at the outset, they had also great 
advantages, having a country more attractive to emigrants, and in 
Mexico and Peru, a native population subject to their rule, and 
somewhat advanced in civilization. 

It is scarcely 250 years, since the first English settlement was 
begun upon the wild shores of North America. For a hundred 
years the progress of the new colonies was unavoidably slow. A 
wide ocean separated them from the mother country. No gold and 
silvei' mines, no plunder of feeble nations, allured adventurers to 
these shores. When they landed, they had before them an inter- 
minable forest of wild beasts and savage men. With the axe they 
must hew down the forest ; with weapons they must defend them- 
selves against the savages ; with persevering industry they must 
build houses and cultivate fields, for a living. 

When at last, after 160 years of toil and trouble, 13 colonies 
had grown to some degree of importance, the mother country as- 
sumed the power of controlling them absolutely, and began to tax 
them as subjects, without allowing them the common rights of 
British freemen. They resisted ; and finding at last, that the 
mother country was resolved to force them into submission, they 
staked their all upon the issue, and on this day, 80 years ago, de- 
clared themselves to be independent states. After a hard and bloody 
struggle of 7 years, they, with the aid of France, wrung from their 
mighty adversary the acknowledgement of their independence. 




At the beginning of the war, the colonies wej-e just rising into 
wealth and prosperity. At the close of the Avar, the new states 
were in a deplorable condition. During 7 years the storm of inter- 
nal war had swept over them ; towns had been bui-nt, fields wasted, 
ships destroyed, and immense quantities of other property con- 
sumed, carried off or wantonly burnt by the enemy. Commerce 
was almost annihilated. The paper currency of the country was 
out of credit ; what gold and silver the war had left, was nearly all 
sent out to buy clothing and other necessaries fur the destitute 
people. They could manufacture little for themselves. Before the 
war, mining and manufacturing were scarcely begun, under the 
jealous restrictions of the mother country. After the war, they 
could scarcely begin for want of skill and capital. To crown all, 
the people, the states and the confederacy, were burdened with debts, 
which they were unable to pay. When the army which had gained 
their independence was discharged, both officers and soldiers had 
to go away, half naked, and unpaid for their services. 

In such a prostrate condition of the country, a wise and efficient 
government was greatly needed, not only for the several states, but 
for the United States. There was wisdom enough among the 
patriots of the revolution, and power enough in the state govern- 
ments ; but the Articles of confederation, which bound the states 
together, were essentially defective. The Congress had, it is true, 
the management of the common defense of the country and its rela- 
tions with foreign powers. They could also call upon the states to 
pay money into the Federal treasury. That is, they could tax the 
states, but the states only could tax the people. The states only 
could exercise sovereign power within their respective bounds. 
Hence, if a state failed to perform its federal duties, there was no 
remedy but military coercion, in other words, civil war. 

During the struggle for independence, the states were often remiss 
in complying with the requisitions of Congress. When the stimu- 
lus of public danger was taken away, they would naturally be more 
remiss, — and most of all now, when poverty and debt were sore 
upon them, and when the morals of the country had been sadly de- 
praved by the war. A number of the states did nothing for the 
confederacy. Most of them adopted a selfish policy ; adjacent 
states contended about commercial matters ; those which had the 
most convenient ports, drew trade and revenue from their neigh- 
bors ; which led to jealousies and countervailing regulations. 

In this condition, the confederacy was going to wreck. It was 
losing confidence at home, and respect abroad. The wise patriots of 
the time, with Washington at their head, saw the danger of disu- 
nion and civil strife, and they averted it by procuring the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution. This instrument changed the whole 
state of affairs, by making the United States a nation. To the gene- 








ral government was committed, within certain limits, a sovereign 
power over the people of the United States. They could tax them, 
and make laws to bind them. They had the exclusive power to 
tax ships and imported goods, and to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations and among the states. Having thus the sovereign 
power of all the common affairs of the country, of raising revenue 
by taxation, and of executing their own laws, the general govern- 
ment was enabled effectually to provide for the common defense and 
general welfare of the United States. 

This constitution, which divides the sovereignty between the ge- 
neral government and the state governments ; uniting the people as 
a nation under the one, and dividing them as states under the other ; 
making us a unit to the foreign world, and a harmonious plurality 
at home ; is in theory, and has proved itself to be in practice, the 
best scheme of government ever devised for a great country like 
ours. 

Without such a national government, the states must have been 
perpetually embroiled with disputes, resulting often in bloody colli- 
sions, and terminating in military despotism founded on the ruins 
of civil liberty. The country would have no peace at home, and no 
respect abroad. What commerce it had on the ocean, would have 
been at the mercy of foreign nations and piratical freebooters. Its 
internal resources would have been consumed by military ravage and 
oppressive taxation. Industry would have been paralyzed ; and 
morals, both public and privatCj would have been more and more 
deeply corrupted. 

Now let us see what progress our country has made, under the 
benign operation of the Federal Constitution. 

First, in regard to population: When independence was declared, 
the country v/as supposed to have three millions of inhabitants. 
Fourteen years afterwards, when the first census was taken imder 
the Federal Constitution, the number was ascertained to be some- 
what less than four millions. Now after a period of 66 years, the 
population of our country has increased to twenty-seven millions. 
This is nearly a sevenfold increase within two-thirds of a century. 

About 120,000 were gained by additions to our territory ; large 
numbers have come in from Europe ; but three-fourths of the whole 
increase has been from nature, under the benign influence of freedom, 
peace, industry and plenty. Such a growth of popiilation is unex- 
ampled in the history of nations. At first we were ranked, in 
respect to population and wealth, among the lowesi nations in 
Christendom. Now we are counted among the highest ; and we 
are advancing with giant strides to a greatness above them all. 

Next, in regard to territorial extent, we were laige at the first ; 
now we are immense. From the British provinces in the north, to 
Florida in the south, and from the Atlantic in the East, to the 






6 



Mississippi in the West, we had an ample territory of 800,000 
square miles. But two-thirds of this large space was, at the birth 
of our nation, an Indian wilderness, and much of the other third 
was very little improved. 

Now we extend southward to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio 
Grande, and stretch westward across the continent, with an average 
breadth of 1300* miles, comprehending a space nearly four times as 
large as our original territory. It embraces all varieties of climate 
between the extremes of heat and cold. It contains a vast extent of 
fertile soil, inexhaustible stores of mineral wealth, and great natural 
facilities for manufacture and trade. With 3500 miles of sea coast 
on two oceans, and 20,000 miles of internal navigation on rivers, 
lakes and bays, Ave have natural means for an unbounded commerce 
amongst ourselves, and with all the maritime nations of the earth. 
Take it altogether, the domain which God has allotted to our great 
republic, has the largest extent of richly endowed territory, and the 
happiest situation for safety, aud for domestic and foreign inter- 
course, that ever fell to the lot of a imited people. Most Avonderful, 
too, is the progress made, since our national union began, towards 
its complete occupancy and improvement. 

Within the lifetime of some who now hear me, our settlements, 
with a front of 1000 miles from north to soutli, have advanced 
from the Allegheny Ridge, 1000 miles westward, to the great buffalo 
pastures beyond the Mississippi. They have, moreover, rounded 
the Gulf of Mexico to the Rio Grande, and away beyond the Rocky 
Mountains on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, they are rapidly 
filling up another maritime frontier, 1300 miles in length. 

The result of this westward march of our population, has been 
the formation of sixteen flourishing states, some of them already 
equal in population and wealth to some of the small monarchies of 
Europe, such for example as Denmark, so famous in history, and 
Greece the mother of arts and sciences. Soon too we shall have 
five additional states, now in embryo and rapidly coming to matu- 
rity. All this wide scene of civilized life and prosperous industry 
has been created in the wilderness, since he Avho now addresses you 
was born. 

Whilst the population of our country has been thus multiplying 
and spreading, the wealth and resources of the nation have increased 
with a two-fold rapidity. 

A striking evidence of this may be seen in the magical growth 
and multiplication of our cities and tOAvns. They flourish because 
the country flourishes. They are supported by the products of the 



♦Note. It is sufficient, if the round numbers used in statements of this 
sort, approach the truth. 







country. I refer to them as an index of the increased wealth and 
business of the community. 

New York has grown thirty-fold in population ; and not less 
than sixty-fold in wealth, since the revolution. It is now one of 
the greatest emporiums in the world ; in population and wealth, it 
is the third city in Christendom. Philadelphia is fifteen times as 
large and thirty times as wealthy as it was, when its people first 
heard the declaration of independence. Few capitals of nations 
are so great, so rich and so beautiful. When Lafayette first landed 
in Baltimore, he saw but a village there. Now we see it grown up 
into a great commercial city of more than 200,000 inhabitants. 
Cincinnati was not even a village then, nor even at the adoption of 
the Federal Constitution, nor till several years afterwards. It is 
now a fine city of 200,000 inhabitants. When Louisiana was a 
French colony, New Orleans was a tOAvn of little importance, and 
St. Louis was a trading village among the Indians. New Orleans 
is now one of the great marts of American Commerce, and St. 
Louis is hastening to become the greatest inland city on the conti- 
nent. And what shall we say of Chicago and San Francisco ? 
A dozen years ago, they were little or nothing, when we last heard 
how large they were, they were each equal to three New Yorks of the 
revolution. What they will be a dozen years hence — who can tell ? 

So almost every where in our new countries, towns spring up to 
importance, almost before we hear of their existence ; and over the 
most of our states, cities, towns, and villages, are increasing in 
population and in business, as if they would never be done. 

As our towns grow and multiply, so do all the products of 
industry. Agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers, with all 
their means and appliances, their instruments, and their processes, 
show such increase and improvement, as never appeared on this 
earth before. Let us advert to some industrial aspects of the 
coimtry. 

When the Federal Constitution was adopted, no branch of indus- 
try flourished. Agriculture the first and chief pursuit of the colo- 
nies, had after the revolution, but a restricted market abroad, and 
almost none at home. Manufactures scarcely existed, and com- 
merce had little material to operate on, little encouragement at 
home, and little scope or safety abroad. 

Now over what a vast expanse do we see fields teeming with the 
fruits of agriculture ! Southern industry produces bales of cotton 
by the million, and hogsheads of sugar by the hundred thousand. 
Further north, a million of barns are yearly filled with plenty. 
Manufactories are not less flourishing. Ten thousand water falls 
and ten thousand steam engines are driving machinery ; towns and 
cities rise and flourish, as much on the operations of handicraft, as 
on the exchanges of commerce. No where is more ingenuity dis- 

£ 



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played in useful inventions and improvements ; no where is more 
skill displayed in all the operations of industry. 

Then look at the commerce of these United States, once so poor 
and feeble. Go to the harbor of New York, and see the shore lined 
for six miles with ships and warehouses, delivering and receiving 
the productions of every art and every climate. Go to twenty other 
American ports and see the same on a smaller scale. And what 
open sea is there on the wide world — what open port on its shores, 
where American ships may not be found ? Where may a whale 
hide himself in all the watery world from the all pervading search 
of the yankee whalers ? 

From the ruins of the revolutionary war, our commerce seemed 
unable to rise, until the Federal Government gave it a start by giv- 
ing it national protection under " ihe star spangled banner." Now 
see the result. We have the greatest commercial marine in the 
world. Heretofore, for ages, Great Britain has been the leading 
commercial power among the nations. Now she has lost that pre- 
eminence. Before our age as a national republic has reached three 
score years and ten, our shipping in the domestic and foreign trade 
has made our country the commej-cial queen of the world, and with 
a few years more of peace at home and abroad, she may outstrip 
all Europe in the race of commercial greatness. 

Our public navy is inferior to the navies of Britain and France. 
But though we cannot at present send forth as heavy fleets as those 
powers, we can in a few months, arm 500 swift cruisers against an 
enemy's commerce. 

But after all, nothing more strikingly exhibits the progress of the 
United States in wealth and power, than the wonderful increase of 
commercial and traveling facilities over all parts of the Union. 

Sixty years ago, when the republic was yet confined to her origi- 
nal boundaries, the greatest danger to the Union was thought to 
arise from the vast extent of our territory, divided as it was by a 
broad range of mountains, from which the rivers flowed far asunder 
into different seas. 

At that time all our intercourse by land was over rough roads, 
requiring six stout horses to draw 3000 weight at the rate of fifteen 
or twenty miles a day. Over the steep mountains between the east 
and the west, only the half of this could be accomplished, upon 
the three or four rugged roads of the day. 

Then, the navigation of our tide rivers was slowly performed 
with sailing craft. The current of shallower rivers, was laboriously 
stemmed with poles in keel-boats, batteaux and canoes. The strong 
deep current of the Mississippi was thought to admit only of a 
descending trade in flatlioats, the crews of which had to return from 
New Orleans to Pittsburg, then the only considerable town on the 
Ohio, by a land journey of sixty or seventy days, in great part 







9 



through a wilderness of Indians. Subsequently, when towns began 
to rise on the lower Ohio, some groceries were brought up from New 
Orleans in large keel boats, called barges. I once saw a vessel of 
this sort arrive at Cincinnati ; it was in 1815 ; she was said to 
carry ninety tons, and had been nearly three months on the voyage. 
She had a crew of more than thirty stout men, who pulled her 
along by applying their shoulders to a large tow-rope, tied to a tree 
or a snag, some twenty or thirty rods ahead. 

But how is it now. Some 1500 steamers, many of them like 
royal palaces, rush through the waters of our rivers, lakes, and sea- 
coasts, to say nothing of the mighty structures, which are driven 
across the ocean by the power of steam. Now the Father of 
waters may roll his swelling floods from northern snows to the 
Gulf where tropic winds blow, and scarcely check the speed of the 
two or three hundred great steamers, which plow his floods from New 
Orleans to the cities and towns, which stand where forests grew and 
savages yelled, when the grey-headed men of this assembly were born. 

Now turn fi-ora the water to the land. Conceive yourselves 
raised to a height in the air, from which you may take a bird's eye 
view of our thirty states on this side of the Rocky Mountains. What 
strikes your view ? Is it here and there a ponderous road wagon, 
laboring through mud, jolting over rocks, or straining up moun- 
tain steeps, with horses panting, whip cracking, and driver shout- 
ino- ? No, that sort of land transportation is nearly obsolete in 
the more improved parts of the country. But what do you see? 
From Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic ocean to the great wes- 
tern prairie, trains of railroad cars, shooting swift as the wind from 
city to city, from town to town, over plains, over rivers, and 
through mountains. They are full of people and full of wealth. 
They run day and night, going further in an hour than a wagon 

goes in a day. . i j x i 

Mountains have ceased to be an obstruction to trade and travel. 
Currents are a very slight impediment to navigation. Distance is of 
little importance, when men and things can be whirled over five or 
six hundred miles in a day and a night, and the telegraph can shoot 
a dispatch over one thousand miles in a minute. 

The effect of steam conveyance by water and by land is to give 
five-fold speed to the business of the country, and in that proportion 
to bring the parts practically nigher together ; whilst the telegraph 
still farther reduces the inconvenience of communication between 
distant places. . 

Besides the commercial importance of these rapid conveyances 
they make our country invulnerable by foreign invaders. S'lould 
an enemy's fleet bring over one hundred thousand men to attack New 
York, or any of our great sea ports, within an hour after the mast- 
heads of his fleet were seen from a signal post, the alarm would be 




10 



spread a thousand miles through the country, and before he could 
get his hundred thousand men ashore, two or three hundred thou- 
sand would be gathering at the rate of thirty miles an hour to meet 
them. 

But that which secures ns against foreign invasion, would make 
a border war between two sections of our country doubly destruc- 
tive. Here the invader would have the advantage of breaking sud- 
denly over an unguarded frontier, with a force assembled in a night 
from far and near. He might ravage a Avhole county, or plunder 
and burn a town, before the inhabitants were well aware of his pres- 
ence. 

But let us now reason a little on the causes of this unparalleled 
prospei'ity of our United States. 

Doubtless we owe it all to the good providence of God, who, in 
the first place, allotted to us so wide and goodly a heritage, far away 
from those strong and aggressive nations, who might have crushed 
our young republic, before it had time to develop its strength. 

But territorial advantages only afforded room and opportunity 
for national expansion. It depended, under God, upon the charac- 
ter and conduct of the people, Avhether or not these advantages should 
be duly improved. The other nations of this continent have ample 
room to thrive as well as we. But they indolently slumber over the 
gifts of nature ; and when they are roused, it is by the trumpet of 
discord, summoning them to civil war and revolution. Such a peo- 
ple can not prosper. 

I would not, as some do, attribute our progress to a physical su- 
periority of the Anglo Saxon race, to which the majority of the 
British people and the early settlers in this country belonged. But 
much — very much — is due to the religious character of the early 
colonists, and to the principles of civil liberty which they brought 
with them. The great majority were Protestant Christians, accus- 
tomed to free thought and action, under a free system of government 
in Church and State. They gave to colonial society and institutions 
their first foim and movement. From these the growing colonies 
never departed, and the revolution only shook off the incumbrance 
of foreign domination, and gave to the American character and in- 
stitutions a free development. Prom the beginning, and more in 
after times, our American population has been composed of divers 
races. Now, the majority of our citizens are of German, Low Dutch, 
Irish, Welsh and French descent, with a sprinkling from otlier na- 
tions of Europe. 

Yet whatever may have been the origin of those who now com- 
pose our native population, all have been cast in the American 
mould, and conform to the national character. The same general 
spirit of industry, enterprise and personal independence, distin- 
guishes them from other nations, and makes them undistinguishable 




cm 





11 




from one another. It is only the African race, bond and free, who 
are of so different a tj'pe from the rest, that they cannot incorporate 
with the mass ; but must remain ever distinct ; not by the will of 
man, but of God who made us all. 

But energy of character and freedom of action, even when chast- 
ened by a government of law and by the teachings of a pure 
Christianity, would not have made this a great and prosperous 
country, without the Federal Union, which coiistituted us_ one 
people — gave us peace with freedom, and expansion with unity — 
and saved our States from being torn into bleeding fragments, and 
oppressed by military establishments and enormous taxation. It is 
to the Union that we owe our growth and our greatness. As 
separate States, or as .sectional confederacies, we should have 
wrought each other's ruin; instead of combining all our energies to 
work out a national prosperity, such as the world has never seen. 
The Grecian states of old, the German states of later ages, and the 
Spanish American states of recent origin, are instructive examples 
of the disastrous consequences of disunion amongst adjacent states, 
in circumstances like ours, separately feeble for good, but potent , 
for mischief; and yet capable, by sameness of language and 
similarity of political institutions, of uniting harmoniously for 
their common defence and general welfare. 

The Grecian states, which, united, could defy the mighty empire 
of Persia, ruined one another by intestine wars, and then fell a prey 
to foreign invaders. The Greeks have been a degraded people ever 
since. 

Germany, which by union would have been invulnerable and the 
arbiter of Europe, was imhappily divided, from the earliest times, 
into discordant states, great and small. Consequently, notwith- 
standing a loose sort of confederation, Germany has been torn by 
intestine feuds ; her plains have been the battlefields of Europe ; and 
despotism, supported by standing armies, has oppressed her people. 
Nothing has kept up the country from utter prostration, but the 
indomitable spirit of German industry. 

As to the Spanish American states, you know their wretched 
history : factions, revolutions ; no security of property — no en- 
couragement to industry ; fio advancement ; no peace of mind, no 
hope of better times. Their society is like many parts of their 
country ; volcanoes discharge fire and smoke above their heads ; 
earthquakes shake the foundations beneath their feet. 

So it is and must be, always and everywhere, _ that disunion 
among small adjacent states, occasions disputes, enmities, hostilities 
and calamities without end. 

Our fathers felt the necessity of Union. Their motto was, 
United we stand; divided we fall:— & pithy saying, true then, true 
now, and "true lorever. 







12 



By union, our states were able in the days of their weakness to 
protect one another. The enemy who struck at the least member 
of the confederacy, produced a sensation that was felt through the 
whole body, and the nation was ready as one man to repel the 
assault. 

Now in the days of our strength, let an American vessel go from 
any of our hundred seaports, destined to any port of the wide world. 
She goes not as a vessel of Massachusetts or of Virginia. She is 
an American vessel. She bears at her mast-head the flag of our 
Union. Every man on board sees in the stars and stripes of that 
banner, as it waves over his head, the pledge of 27 millions of 
people at home, that they will protect him in his rights, and resent 
any wrong done to him as if it were done to themselves. The world 
knows this ; and therefore American ships safely traverse every 
sea, and American commerce has a range as wide as the world. 

And in connection with this, what a rich and spacious field does 
the Union open to our citizens for commerce among themselves ? 
Free as the air, they can exchange commodities all over our three 
millions of square miles. Here no state lines are visible ; no 
revenue officers exact payment for leave to ti-ade. If state taxes 
are payable by traders, all Americans pay alike in every state. 
Fifty great marts and thousands of smaller ones, are as freely open 
to every American, as the door of his own dwelling. 

The incalculable amount and importance of our internal trade is 
evinced by tlie immense amount of labor and capital expended on 
its machinery — the roads and canals, the river improvements, 
bridges, Avharves, warehouses, sailing vessels, steamers, boats, loco- 
motives, cars, wagons, and who can tell what all ? Besides the men 
and horses employed in cai-iying on this immense business. Over 
all our 31 states, it is ever going on and ever increasing. So wide 
and busy a scene of perfectly free trade, is no where else to be found. 
Nothing more clearly demonstrates the benefits of the union, 
nothing contributes more to its prosperity. Nothing but civil war 
would be more calamitous, than the interruption of this widely 
extended free trade among ourselves. And what do its vast amount 
and its rapid increase denote? Union and peace, civil liberty, 
energetic industry, and universal prospe^ty, from the Lakes to the 
Gulf — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Alleghany mountains — from 
the Alleghany to the Rocky IMountains — fiom the Rocky Moun- 
tains to the golden shores of the Pacific Ocean. 

And yet this nation is but in its infancy. Its career of prospe- 
rity is only begun. It is now just getting under headway. It can 
now do as much and grow as much in one year, as it would in 
seven years, when we old men were boys. Its growth in numbeis, 
wealth and power, is like the growth of money at compound 
interest — the greater it grows, the faster it grows. 





^;is^ 



13 




The young people of this audience, whose lives may be prolonged 
to seventy years, will see a greater sight than ever yet has blessed 
the eyes of patriot or philanthropist. They will see this broad 
continent teeming with busy multitudes, wherever industry can 
make corn grow, dig metals, or run machinery. The popula- 
tion, now great, will have been twice doubled. It will be more 
than 100 millions. Twenty-five millions of strong men will be at 
work. An ocean of green fields will wave in the breezes of June 
Innumerable flocks and herds will pasture a hundred thousand hills. 
A hundred great cities, thousands of flourishing towns — will be full 
of life and of business. How many thousand cars will be flying 
over the railroads, how many thousand steamers will be rushing 
through the waters, of the Union ; how many thousand ships will 
be sailing over the seas under the " star-spangled banner" — ;judge 
ye from the experience of the past. Had any man predicted, fifty 
years ago, what is now a reality in these United States, his predic- 
tion might have been taken for an enthusiast's dream. Now, when 
we see what has been realized, we may say, if God give us union 
and peace for another fifty years, " the dream is certain, and the 
interpretation thereof is sure." 

But some predict a dissolution of the Union before that day of 
American grandeur and glory shall arrive. Some political fillibusters 
are even now gathering their little forces to break up and revolu- 
tionize this great and happy land. A dissolution of the Union ! 
Of these United States ! Do those who talk so heedlessly of a dis- 
solution of the Union, know what they mean ? Do the sowers of 
sectional discord know what they are doing ? 

But turning from the reckless agitators of the day, I would fain 
ask the peaceful millions of my countrymen ; can you, who as a 
nation enjoy so many blessings — can you, when you look back on 
your country's history, and forward to its prospects, those glorious 
prospects, which a benificent Providence is opening so nearly and 
so brightly to you and your children — can you destroy this happy 
Union, and ruin all? I can answer for you, no ! no ! ! no ! ! ! 

There are sins and iniquities enough in this heaven-favored land, 
to bring upon us the judgements of God. But let the waters of 
the ocean rise, if it be •rod's will, and overwhelm this happy 
republic : Let the central fires of the earth burst forth, if the 
Almighty has so decreed, and a sea of burning lava cover up the 
27 millions and all they possess : But oh ! let not the righteous 
Judge of the earth doom us to go mad, and fill this land of peace 
and prosperity with civil bloodshed and ruthless devastation. 

True it is, alas ! Prosperity has made many thousands of our 
people reckless. This generation has never seen the war-fiend 
stalking through the land with demoniac rage in his heart, the 
sword of slaughter in his right hand, and the torch of desolation in 





his left. Our fathers felt the woes of such a scene. They mourned 
over it, when, after a seven years' war in the heart of the country, 
they beheld it all covered with poverty, debt, taxation, and sadness. 
To prevent a repetition of such scenes, and the utter ruin of the 
country, they formed this Union of States. You know what peace 
and prosperity have been the happy result. Can you throw these 
blessings away, and rush madly into civil war for any cause now 
existing, or likely to exist ? No ! you can not, you %vill not. 

Some few inconsiderate men have talked of a peaceful separation. 
Peaceful ! separation ! Impossible ! Nothing but maniac violence, 
can burst the strong bonds of this Union asunder. Can such a body 
of health and strength be dismembered, and no blood flow from the 
severed parts ? Never. If there be now any danger of disunion, it 
arises not from any dictate of interest or of duty ; far from it : but 
from sectional animosity generated by fanatical opinions, and 
blown up to rage and violence by passionate or by scheming 
demagogues. 

See how thousands in the North and thousands in the South, have 
been inflamed by the squabbles of the squatters in Kansas ! If the 
flash of a pound of gunpowder out in the wilderness, can rouse the 
demon of evil in our States, and set some northern ministers drum- 
ming up the war spirit ; how will it be, when the dividing line 
between the North and the South shall be laid with a train of ten 
thousand tons of gunpowder, tar, pitch and turpentine, which a 
band of border ruffians may fire at any time ? Will the separation 
be peaceful then ? 

When lately a fanatical abolitionist in the Senate of the United 
States uttered an offensive speech against southern States and men ; 
and a southern ruffian entered the Senate chamber and beat him 
half to death ; there was cause enough for indignation against the 
individuals, and shame for our country's disgrace. But the affair 
has given occasion to the opposite factions to blow the flames of 
sectional discord higher and wider. They have on their respective 
sides made of the northern senatorial factionist a martyr, and of the 
southern representative club-man a hero ! Does such a spiiit as 
this indicate a peaceful separation ? No : when the factionists seize 
all occasions to stir up sectional strife, ^Ml to raise the passions of 
the people to blood-and-slaughtor point, separation, if it come at 
all, must come with blood and slaughter. But it cannot come. 
A few thousand fanatics in the north and as many in the south, 
however they may brawl and tlireaten, cannot set four or five mil- 
lions of peaceful citizens to cutting each other's throats. There is 
too much common sense, patriotic feeling and Christian conscience 
among them, for that. If the restless spirits of the country are 
so eager for war, let them go abroad and fillibuster ; let the fiery 
abolitionists and their disunionist adversaries in the South, go 







15 



to Cuba, and try the experiment of a slavery and anti-slavery war 
in that island of slaves, before they destroy the peace and prosperity 
of their own great and happy country. The result may teach them 
a useful lesson, and so cool their blood, as to make the survivors 
willing to let the Union abide in peace. 

But whether they will or not, the Union will stand. Too many 
cords of interest, of love and of honor, bind its parts together, to 
make it separable by human hands. Especially should we, who 
live near the border line of 2,500 miles, which would divide the 
North from the South, dread a separation between them. That 
long dividing line would be a line of fire ; and those who live near it 
would bear the brunt of all the invasions, burnings, plunderings 
and slaughters between the hostile sections. 

Suppose, however, that the agitators should succeed in bringing 
on a separation ; what should we do then with the " Star Spangled 
Banner," which is now the ensign of our national union and glory 
throughout the world ? I will tell you what would make it truly 
represent our disunited country. Let the red stripes remain, but let 
the coloring matter be the blood of our citizens. Change the 
white stripes into black, to signify darkness and woe. Instead of 
radiant stars in a blue field of peace and love, let 31 firebrands of 
discord represent the states. Let the space, now filled with 
heavenly blue, be painted as a field of war, Avith here a party of 
marauders, burning, plundering and slaying ; and there embattled 
hosts, and gory death stalking among them ; and in the back 
ground, not far away, two thrones of military despotism, one for 
the North, and one for the South, each throne elevated on a moun- 
tain of slain Americans : let the pillars which support the thrones, 
be cannon, and the rungs, muskets with bayonets bristling out on all 
sides ; and let the fields around be full of cinders, bones and blood. 
Having thus finished the Flng of Disunion, tear it asunder from 
end to end ; hang one fragment to the masthead of a northern ship, 
and the other to the masthead of a southern ship, and send them 
over the ocean to tell the world what America has come to. Then 
will despots rejoice at the fall of the last and the greatest of all 
the republics. 

Fellow citizens, I havl^'feo much confidence in the intelligence, 
good sense and patriotism of my countrymen, that 1 can pronounce 
in their name, the moral impossibility of a dissolution of the Union. 
Before the political firebrands who trouble the countr)^ can set the 
Union on fire, three millions of peaceful voters — farmers, mechan- 
ics, manufacturers, merchants, laborers, and others — will have a 
word to say on the subject. They will not put their lives, liberty 
and property in jeopardy, to gratify the fanatic zeal or ambitious 
designs of agitators and demagogues. 

Notwithstanding the noise made by a few thousand reckless 






16 



hotheads and unprincipled poh'tical schemers, the millions are de- 
votedly attached to the Union, their common country, their pride 
and their safeguard. 

Yes, if on this glorious fourth of July, the question were put to 
the vote, shall our Federal Union be dissolved ? millions of voices, 
souriding like the roar of a thousand Niagaras, would utter such an 
emphatic and indignant no ! that the factions, now so noisy, would 
be struck dumb forever. 

But fellow citizens, the fact is not to be concealed, that the agita- 
tors are gaining ground ; that political parties are becoming more 
sectional, and that the fire of discord is spreading to a dangerous 
extent. Unless the people, the quiet citizens, whose all on earth is 
at stake, come forth in their might, and rebuke the fiery zealots and 
political agitators, who disturb and disgrace our national councils, 
serious mischief may ensue, and wounds may be inflicted on the 
peace and prosperity of the Union, which will not be healed for an 
age to come. 

Happily, the people have in their hands a peaceful and efif'ectual 
remedy. Let them exclude from office, every brawling demagogue 
and hotheaded agitator of sectional questions, whatever party name 
he may choose to assume. Let them admit into the public councils 
only sober-minded, conservative men, who will behave themselves 
like christian gentlemen ; will attend diligently to the public 
business, and either avoid exciting topics of public discussion, or 
discuss them with courtesy and modeiation. Let any man who 
shall utter abusive language, or commit personal violence in the 
hails of Congress, be banished from them, as a disgrace to the 
nation and to his constituents.. Let the people reject every candi- 
date who holds extreme opinions on matters of sectional dispute,- 
and every candidate who will not pledge himself to follow the fare- 
well advice of the father of his country ; and Avho will not heartily 
echo the sentiment of the hero of New Orleans, — " The Union 
must be j^reserved." In time of danger, let this be the political 
watchword of all who love their country. Then, as I solemnly 
believe, the voice of the people will be the voice of God, and the 
Union shall be preserved. Then it shall go on to flourish in peace 
and prosperity. Then in all the milliom of happy homes in our 
great republic, may the patriotic song of our fathers be chanted : 

Columbia! Columbia! to glory arise, 

The queen of the world, and the child of the skies. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







